Introduction

Totem builds are very good when it comes to focusing on survivability since they let you be very mobile while the fight is happening. They also solve issues like reflect, with which you might struggle when self casting spells. We are looking at Frostbolt and Glacial Cascade spell totems. We chose these skills because they have very high base damage, Frostbolt has great clearspeed, while Glacial Cascade excels at single target damage. The build can be played as Life-based with Mind over Matter, or even Low Life with the Mind over Matter variant. The Life-based version of the build is great for league starter or if you have little currency to invest into the build, while the Low Life variant requires more expensive items. Hierophant fits perfectly into the equation here, since it provides a lot of totem perks, along with additional mana modifiers.

Build Summary

Overall the build is very cheap to start and does not requires specific uniques to make the build work, except for the threshold jewels. The build mainly focuses on critical chance and multiplier, spell damage, mana and life modifiers, or mana and energy shield if you decide to go Low Life. What will allow you to start playing the build is having at least one Frozen Trail socketed, and Ancestral Bond on the passive skill tree. For Glacial Cascade you should purchase two The Long Winter, this can wait until you start doing maps.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Cheap to start+ Feels safe to play+ Very good clear speed

Cons

- Have to swap skills and jewels depending on type of content- Totem builds might not appeal to some players

Defensively, the build feels safe to play due to the nature of the skill. It is a cold-based skill so everything hit by totems is either frozen or chilled. Staying a screen away from foes is completely realistic. Great mana pool with a more powerful version of Mind over Matter adds a lot of effective life pool to the build.

Ascendancy, Passive Tree, Bandits and Pantheons

Ascendancy (Templar – Hierophant)

Pursuit of Faith

Ritual of Awakening

Divine Guidance

Sanctuary of Thought

Pursuit of Faith brings 1 additional maximum totem, improving single target damage further, along with a lot of quality of life in the form of cast speed, damage and totem duration. Ritual of Awakening allows the build to place two totems per cast. The totem placement speed makes the build feel very smooth and fast. Divine Guidance improves Mind over Matter by additional 10% of damage taken as mana before life. It also provides 150 flat mana, which modified by passive tree and items can translate into more than 500 maximum mana. Sanctuary of Thought reduces mana costs substantially while also provides great amount of energy shield to the build. This is very strong when it comes to Low Life. If you choose the Life-based variant of the build you can also consider Conviction of Power for additional damage.

Passive Tree

On the passive skill tree we mainly focus on life/energy shield and spell damage, spell critical multipliers and totem modifiers.

Bandits

In Act II you have to do the quest “Deal with the Bandits”. This is a decision that you have to make for your character, which will stay with it for the rest of the game. You can either kill all bandits (Alira, Oak and Kraityn) for 2 additional passive skill tree points. The other choice is to help one of them for a specific reward. For this specific build we should help Alira. The critical multiplier and 15% all elemental resistances are stronger than the 2 passive skill points.

Pantheons

Major:The Brine King helps deal to with stun locks. Soul of Lunaris can help you deal with chaining projectiles. Other god powers are useful too, no specific pantheon is irreplaceable and every one can be used based on personal preference and content you are aiming to clear.

Minor:Soul of Shakari’s poison immunity is very useful. When playing Low Life, Abberath brings quality of life. Other gods can be considered based on specific situations.

Gems

Depending on the type of content and your goals, you can choose between Frostbolt for clearing, or Glacial Cascade for single target encounters. For mobility, use Flame Dash, this is also a reliable source of Arcane Surge procs. Orb of Storms helps with Power charge generation. If you feel like you could use some more mobility and not only rely on Flame Dash’s charges, you can also use Shield Charge.

Frostbolt and Glacial Cascade (6-Link)

Both skills are exceptional at what they do, swapping gems between types of content is fairly easy. In general use Frostbolt, if you feel you are lacking single target damage put in Glacial Cascade instead.

Gearing

Besides the skill-specific jewels, you should look for gear with life/energy shield and spell damage and critical strikes modifiers. When playing low-life you should have some way of preventing stun-locks, this is where Eye of Chayula comes in handy. You should also have a way to prevent chaos damage bypassing your energy shield, Solaris Lorica Shavronne's Wrappings and Coruscating Elixir will do the work.

Helmet

A rare helmet is best in slot. For Frostbolt look for cast speed or damage enchant. For Glacial Cascade look for any of them, they are all good.

Life-based Rare Affix Priority

Maximum Life

Elemental resistances

Maximum mana

Chaos resistance

Attributes

Low Life-based Rare Affix Priority

Maximum energy shield

Elemental resistances

Maximum mana

Chaos resistance

Attributes

Body Armour

When it comes to body armors we have few choices. For Low Life we definitely need Shavronne’s Wrappings or Solaris Lorica. The Life-based version can utilize Soul Mantle very well, practically allowing you to run a 7-link totem. Then you can also add Cold Penetration Support to your setup. To counter the strong curses applied on you every single time a totem dies you have to use two Kikazaru rings, which will reduce curse effectiveness on you by 80%. Use rare body armor with life and resists until you can afford these. Tabula Rasa is also a great choice early on.

Gloves

A rare pair of gloves is best in slot for both Life and Low-Life variants.

Life-based Rare Affix Priority

Maximum Life

Elemental resistances

Maximum mana

Attributes

Chaos resistance

Low Life based Rare Affix Priority

Maximum energy shield

Elemental resistances

Maximum mana

Attributes

Chaos resistance

Boots

For the Life-based version you can choose Kaom’s Heart. It provides stun immunity and a lot of flat health.

For Low-Life, Skyforth is definitely the best choice; it will deal with the stun problems which lets you drop Eye of Chayula. Skyforth can be very expensive though. Instead of them you can use Steppan Eard. The best boot enchant from the labyrinth is “Damage Penetrates 10% of Elemental Resistances if you haven’t killed recently”, which is active at all times since you never kill; your totems do. For a rare pair of boots, use any that have life/energy shield, elemental resistances and movement speed.

Belt

A well rolled rare belt is best in slot. You can use Stygian Vise for an additional abyssal socket, which might be the most beneficial choice. Consider leather belts and crystal belts for additional survivability.

Life-based Rare Affix Priority

Maximum Life

Elemental resistances

Flask mods

Low Life-based Rare Affix Priority

Maximum energy shield

Elemental resistances

Flask mods

Amulet

When it comes to the Life variant of the build, a rare amulet is best in slot. For Low Life you will probably have to play with Eye of Chayula / Presence of Chayula for the stun immunity, or you can just deal with stun in another way, like Skyforth, Valyrium or Soul of the Brine King.

Low Life-based Rare Affix Priority

Weapons

For clearing with Frostbolt it is recommended using a dagger and a shield.

Rare Dagger Affix Priority

Spell damage

Increased critical chance with spells

Global critical multiplier

Cold damage

Attack speed (for the mobility skill)

Rare Shield Affix Priority

Maximum Life / Energy shield

Spell Damage

Increased critical chance with spells

Elemental resistances

Note: For single target Glacial Cascade you can benefit greatly from a shaper stat-stick weapon. Replace your dagger with it or you can even go full glass cannon by dual wielding two shaper stat-sticks.

Flasks

Life and Mana flasks are mandatory when playing the Life variant, if not just drop the Life flask. Diamond flask works great in every critical build. Silver flask – There is no other way to gain the onslaught effect so we chose to have it via a flask effect. Last flask slot is up to personal preference, use any utility flask you feel like is useful for particular content. When it comes to Glacial Cascade, Atziri’s Promise provides a lot of damage while being very cost efficient. For defense, Rumi’s Concoction is a decent choice.

Jewels

As in every totem build, it is recommended to use Spire of Stone. Your totems can get stun locked sometimes and it feels very clunky and annoying when this happens. Clear Mind can be used if you decide to not run Clarity. Obviously The Long Winter (x2) and Frozen Trail (x2) are mandatory depending on the skill you are using.

Regular Jewel Affix Priority

Maximum life/Maximum energy shield

Maximum mana

Critical modifiers

Totem damage

Increased Damage

Cast speed

Abyssal Jewel Affix Priority

Maximum life/Maximum energy shield

Maximum mana

Critical modifiers

Leveling

You can start leveling as a totem build as soon as you have Ancestral Bond and proper gem links (preferably 4-link). Even without leveling unique items, the build is pretty easy and straightforward to level and you should not have any issues. You can level with both Frostbolt and Glacial Cascade, depending on personal preference and threshold jewels acquired.

Leveling Tree

Here is a passive tree that will get you to maps with ease. Head for Ancestral Bond first. Then pick Purity of Flesh, Devotion and head to the Witch starting area for all the life, mana and totem nodes. Lastly you should pick Mind over Matter.

Useful Leveling Uniques

As you begin a new character there are few unique items that can boost your power exponentially. Tabula Rasa allows you to have a 6-Linked skill as early as you get the gems. Wanderlust gives a decent movement speed, which will make your leveling that much more efficient. Goldrim provides a lot of elemental resistances, this will let you worry less about gearing when approaching certain Act encounters. Lifesprig will help early on if you socket your spell into it.

Gem Progression

Using Tabula Rasa will allow you to have 6-Link gem setups early on, which is why we show such examples below. If you cannot get Tabula Rasa (or another item with a 6-Link), then simply prioritize the first gems in each link provided below.

In order to acquire gems that are not available to your class as a quest reward, simply ask a friend to buy them off vendors for you, or buy them yourself from Sioasa in The Library in Act III Library.

FAQ

Arc remains one of the strongest spell gems at the moment. This means it might get nerfed soon. This tends to be the case with many overpowered skills like Kinetic Blast, Flameblast‘s burn etc. You can choose to play Arc totems since it is viable at the moment for sure, it is very similar to this build guide when it comes to gear and gem setup. In the end the Frostbolt clear speed is great and the Glacial Cascade blows Arc’s single target off the water for sure.

Why would I choose to play a totem build instead of self-cast?

The totem builds have few perks that make them very useful. First, you are less likely to run into mana problems. Second, reflect is not an issue. Last but not least, is it way easier to stay away and place totems to do the work for you instead of staying close to targets, in that sense it is safer than a self-caster.

Conclusion

If you like totems in general I think this guide provides majority of what you need to know about spell based totem builds. It also explains a cheap and easy way to start a totem build along with a more expensive version of it. In the build you can see a big variety when it comes to play style in the sense that you can swap few items and gems in order to improve the single target immensely or just keep using Frostbolt for optimal clear speed.